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The men and women of the Dallas Police Department continue to make tremendous strides to address the overall rise in violent crime that has been felt across the country as well as in our city. Their efforts can be measured by seeing the 29.9% rise in overall violent crimes cut in half to 14% in just over two months.

The Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) began its enforcement operations in March of 2016 with the goal to sharply decrease offenses in targeted areas by providing a strong officer presence. The strategic deployment of these select officers was determined by current and actionable intelligence developed by street officers, outstanding arrest warrants, drug complaints, and briefings conducted by Crimes Against Persons detectives.

Since March, the VCTF has successfully arrested 233 individuals for offenses committed in the act, seized 74 weapons, confiscated $50,592, checked 382 locations reported as drug houses, executed 44 hazardous search warrants resulting in the arrest of several individuals with a history of violent crime, attempted to make 44 illegal narcotic buys, made 371 drugs seizures, and responded to over 3,620 calls for service.

In addition, the VCTF, working in partnership with the Department of Public Safety Gang Unit and the DPD Gang Unit, arrested 88 gang members with outstanding warrants.

The Narcotics Division’s Drug House Task Force (DHTF) began its enforcement operations in April of 2016. The goal of the task force was to address and resolve citizens’ complaints about increasing drug sales in their communities. Since April, the task force has successfully investigated 1,794 complaints, closing 1,096 of them by conducting numerous community foot patrols, performing 69 enforcement operations, executing 28 search warrants, and making 29 arrests. The enforcement operations included collaboration with the Property Crime and Violent Crime Task Forces. Thus far, the operations have confiscated over $80K in cash, 168 gambling machines, 21 kilos of assorted illegal drugs, 16 weapons, and four vehicles.

On March 23rd the Property Crime Task Force (PCTF) was created to address rising property crime offenses that impact Dallas neighborhoods. Approximately 100 uniform and undercover officers work around the clock to target crimes such as residential burglaries, auto thefts and burglaries of motor vehicles. Since its inception, these dedicated officers have answered nearly 1,400 calls for service, made 374 arrests, recovered 39 stolen vehicles, and seized 28 firearms. The PCTF is working in partnership with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Community Response Team to identify habitual property crime offenders who are committing these offenses. Once a subject is arrested for a property crime, the subject will be evaluated for prior property crime offenses and their impact in the community. It is the goal of this partnership to seek higher sentencing penalties and remove this criminal element from the community.

On March 7th we enhanced our community engagement efforts by implementing foot patrols in high crime areas. These efforts brought our officers out of their vehicles and into the neighborhoods, providing the opportunity for more interaction between the citizens and our officers. Since its inception, Dallas Police officers have performed a total of 37 foot patrols in various areas throughout Dallas. Each patrol division’s Neighborhood Police Officers also perform daily foot patrols in various areas throughout their divisions.

On April 19th the Dallas Police Department had 637 active Domestic Violence Warrants. In an effort to reduce that number, the Domestic Violence Warrant Team was created. Of those active warrants, 342 were felonies and 295 were misdemeanors. As of May 17th, that number has been reduced to 462. Of those, 285 are felonies and 177 are misdemeanors.

To stay informed on the enforcement actions executed by the officers assigned to the various task forces, you can follow them on Twitter @DallasPDVCTF.

In addition, if you have any information regarding a crime that has been committed or information about a subject that has committed a crime, please contact Crime Stoppers at 214-373-TIPS (8477).